Interview with HelloBeautiful

Welcome to the world of Hello Beautiful – by Mel in Toronto

It is bold to package delicate issues into catchy tunes to convey the message that there is "light at the end of the tunnel," and "there's got to be sunlight on even the worst possible thing somewhere" as vocalist Cole puts it. Hello Beautiful, an eclectic punk/hip hop band, was crowned one of two best bands at indie week Toronto 2007. Their refreshing and unique sound with powerful lyrics left a lasting impression on the judges and everyone rocking out on the dance floor.

While sitting at the table with co-vocalist and MC Charlie, Cole says: "My inspiration came from pretty much the scene that we were in, coming up as musicians. There would be a genre that would explode on mainstream media. And it was pretty much the attack of every band trying to hop on that sound and be the best in this sound. It was kind of chasing a mouse down a hole with everyone trying to grab that sound. When the screaming thing came back, there was just an overload of screamo bands, which is cool; I am not knocking it at all. We were just trying to do something to step outside of that to separate us. There are a lot of great musicians; we just wanted to pull ourselves apart. We worked on something we've never done. Some of us came from more punkier backgrounds. And I think to totally step outside, we had hip hop come in which we weren't super used to. It was really organic, it just worked and we got really stocked on it. We kept doing it."

Canadian Hello Beautiful calls Whitby, Ontario, home and is comprised of Cole Martin (lead vocals, rhythm guitar), Charlie Royal (lead vocals), Buddy Taylor (lead guitar), Kevin Walsh (drums), and Dan Bradimore (vocals, bass). In this formation, the band has been together since two years and this year released their album "Soundtrack For Scenario". An album packed with 13 great and diverse songs. "We wanted to pick a theme, a topic for every song," Cole says.

The cover for Hello Beautiful's album was designed by Adam Hare, a designer who works for Cut Throat Clothing "I am wearing one of his shirts right now," Charlie says with a smile. It was important to the band to make sure to have the lyrics in the booklet. "That's the one thing I've always liked about records when you can basically read everything, because some people hear things differently," Cole says.

With so much content, and contrasts in melodies and song content, it was certainly a great idea to include the lyrics in the booklet. A song, which is very uplifting music wise and just makes you want to dance is ST. ANDREW'S BRIDGE. At first glance, the music stands in stark contrast with the lyrics: "It's actually a delicate situation. It's a song about a rape that took place over quite a substantial amount of time," Charlie says. "It is a real life story about something that happened to somebody. We just wanted to write about it and bring awareness to the subject, because it's horrible, that something like that happened and still continues to happen." Cole explains that this "is kind of the light at the end of the tunnel: This person ended up overcoming all this and being able to break free of it. St. Andrews Bridge is where people commit suicide, but she realized that it was hard to fly with broken wings, so she didn't do it."

The song WORDS is "about people who have too much to say, maybe they should be quiet and listen. Don't wait to talk, actually listen. Because a lot of people sit there waiting to get a word in, they don't actually listen to what whoever person is talking. It's basically against the critics who always have something to say. If you don't have something good to say, shut up," Charlie says. VIRGINIA SYMPHONY was written "around the time that the Virginia Tech shooting happened," Cole says. "The implications of why it shouldn't have happened," Charlie adds.

On a lighter note BOOM BOX GENERATION is "just a fun song and when we started it, we kind of wanted the girls to dance it's been working ok," Cole says with a smile. "We enjoy a great time, so that song speaks to this side of things." Charlie adds: "It's all about fun."

And that's what their live shows are all about too. Hello Beautiful is an exceptional live band that has the ability to draw the audience in and as their indie week performance has proved, make people dance who didn't even know the band before. For Charlie "it's definitely the crowd that makes the performance the best thing, the crowd response, reaction, the adrenaline that's pumping." Cole adds that "music isn't really much without fans."

"In your own words" – ONE on ONE with Mel and Charlie and Cole

Mel:  What does it mean to you to be an indie artist?

Charlie:  It's struggling, hustling, staying hungry, always trying to go get it. That's what it means to me to be an indie artist.

Cole:  I do like being indie, because you have a lot of control of the way you market yourself. You can put yourself out there the way that you just want to be and the way that the music is organic and it's cool to just do that. But it is a struggle, like he was saying… Most days will be filled trying to do something for the band.

Mel:  What would you like to achieve with your music?

Cole:  Global Domination (laughs). If I could do music for a career, and if that's what I did for a living, I got up and I could do that for a living, I don't think I could possibly be happier. That's what I want to make out of this band, for sure.

Charlie:  People down the line would look back and say, these guys were decent, maybe hold us in the same regard, the same way we hold some of our influences, in that same type of high regard.

Cole:  There something cool or really wicked about being in a band. The journey is as good as the destination. It's like one of these things, it kind of goes in a full circle. You have hard times, you know, the good outweighs the bad. Your car breaks down, you don't have money to do this, and you get on stage and you do your thing and it is just like it's worth it at the end of the day. It is a really fulfilling thing.

Mel:  Which artist would you like to record a song with and why?

Cole:  I'd like to do something with Timbaland, because you know it would just be a smash hit. That's where I'm at right now.

Charlie:  There are quite a few artists I would like to work with. I would like to work with Michael Jackson. I'd really like to be in a studio with Michael Jackson or Prince, one of those two guys.

Mel:  Which opportunities do you see with indieSolo?

Cole:  When you look at a project like that and you become a part of it, I think this could grow, really big. And I've always like the indie type thing, everyone who is trying to help out independent music. We are happy to be part of it. I guess the answer to the question is that we just want to go wherever indieSolo can take themselves and us.

Charlie:  indieSolo is a great outlet. I was talking to Darryl Hurs, I was talking to him about both, indie week and indieSolo.com. Just basically, the concepts that they bring to the table, they are essential and also doing something that everybody is grateful for. We are very grateful that we won last week, because that brings a lot of exposure. But indieSolo.com bringing one band every day brings a lot of exposure too. Everything is definitely needed that both are doing, it's a great asset.

Mel:  You are one of the proud winners of indie week Toronto, 2007, and the winner of the first ever indieSolo showcase, what did you think about the event?

Cole:  I just would like to thank everyone for making it happen, it was a great time.

Charlie:  Darryl Hurs, indieSolo.com, all the people that we got prizes from: PRS, Jaegermeister, Promark, Dot-on-Shaft, Blueprint Image.

Cole:  The list goes on and on. Great sponsors came out. I think it's just getting bigger, it's great for indie bands. We are really fortunate and honoured that people liked our music like that. There were some great bands too.

Charlie:  53 bands.

Cole:  And everyone was at par, nobody was a brand new band. It was great. It was an honour to share the stage with those guys.

Mel:  Where do you see Hello Beautiful in five years?

Charlie: It would be good to be recognized. Our songs, they do have a message.  And for instance ST. ANDREW'S BRIDGE, it would be good for a message like that and the awareness that it brings. It would be good for songs like WE ARE, WORDS or VIRGINIA SYMPHONY to get out to as many people as possible, so we could, I don't want to say change the world, but a lot of people have a negative outlook or some people have negative contribution to give, to get to a lot of people so that a lot of people can hear it and actually relate to it and say: You know, there is something different out there, there is something better out there. It would be good to have that kind of reach and expansion in five years to where a lot of people have heard of and they know what we are talking about and there is awareness to certain things, bigger things than us.

-end

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